Hell week is upon us. It has descended on college students like a hawk ascending from the heavens to capture a field mouse. It's the inevitable. It is the time we groan as we hear professors utter the dirty word, "cumulative exam," or gift us with an 8-page research paper. The best and worst thing about being an English major is that I don't have any actual exams to study for (#blessed), but I do have to suffer through a mountain of paperwork. This is the first semester in my college career where I am not totally tearing my hair out during this time or considering dropping out. I am actually on top of my work this time! I'm looking at *gasp* a relaxing finals week. How? Well, here are my tips to surviving finals week:
1. Plan Ahead!
This is step one to anything. I begin planning in November, which seems a little over zealous but hear me out on this one. Planning weeks in advance for how you're going to conquer this beast of a week is crucial for several reasons. You never want to go through something as traumatic as finals week without a game plan. You want to plan out when you're going to start studying. I have four papers, a visual presentation, and a portfolio due during finals week. Do you think I'm doing all of that during the week? HELL NO. I've been researching for my research paper since before Thanksgiving break. I've been going to tutoring sessions to outline the other papers and scheduling the editing session right after the outline process. I've been meticulously strategizing how I was going to conquer the week. This isn't my first rodeo. I know exactly what happens when you procrastinate and it involves dehydration from sobbing so much. Don't be that rookie who is crying in the corner of the library at 4am because you didn't manage your time well enough.
2. Execute your plan.
Now that you've got a plan, you're ready to execute said plan. Don't be afraid to be mean to yourself! I literally told myself that if I wasn't at Tim Hortons by 7:30, I would fail out of school. It's harsh and rather ridiculous, but I got out of bed. By 7:45, I'm in my preferred spot, looking in my planner to see what I have to do. I wrote my 8-page research paper within 4 hours on a Saturday, I finished my contemporary literature paper in a day because I made sure I stuck with my plan. You don't want to be that student who has bags under their eyes because they pulled an all-nighter. No matter how much television or movies romanticize the idea of an all-nighter, it's BS. Who wants to be in the library at 3:00 in the morning because they didn't stick to their plan? Not me.
3. Preparing is caring
Isn't this just like planning? Yes, but not in this context. Planning is when you're scheduling when you're going to study/write a paper. Preparing is when you prep for those sessions you planned for. See what I did there? You prepare to study or write a paper by outlining. I discovered this little gem last semester. I don't approach anything without outlining for a variety of reasons. First, it makes the paper writing a lot easier. It cuts the time of the paper writing in half. And it's all of your ideas on paper so you're not struggling to connect the ideas to your paper. It works for exams too. You want to know the answers, but you also want to understand why it's the answer. Professors are tricksters on their exams. They want you to really comprehend the material, not just regurgitate it. With that idea in mind, write concepts on your study guide. Make sure you understand why because when they trick you on an exam by asking you in what way the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, you can really delve into it.
4. Edit, edit, edit!
It's the most tedious, but the most important for paper writing. It seems like a no-brainer, but when you're stressed out because you wrote the paper at the last minute, you kind of forego the stringent editing process. I schedule tutoring sessions totally devoted to editing. This is beneficial in many ways: someone else is looking at your work, it encourages you to have the paper done by that session, and it gives you time to look it over once more before handing it in. I have three editors: my sister, my tutor, and myself. I am getting the paper done earlier enough that I can really look at the content, the grammar, the tenses, and other things like that. Plus, I can print it out and look at it. Nothing is worse than being seconds away from handing in the paper and noticing a whole slew of editing mistakes. Looking something over on computer forces you to ignore glaring issues, while looking at it on paper allows you to be more analytical. I don't know why that is, but I knew the feeling of handing in a paper after seeing all of the mistakes. I don't think being in hell could really capture the agony felt.
5. Take breaks.
Breaks give you the time to step away from your work. It allows you to come back to whatever you're doing with fresh eyes and a fresh mind. That's why I'm against all-nighters because they discourage breaks and sleep (the best break of all). Permitting yourself to watch an episode of Law & Order on Hulu or play a video game on your PS4 will make you a stronger student. Devoting days to just homework is maddening. Breaks give your brain time to absorb what it has just learned. So relax! Get a snack and curl up to a movie (something long like Lord of the Rings or the last Harry Potter movie) or take a nap. If you've done the last 4 steps in a timely order, you can afford a break.
Good luck on your finals. After fifteen long weeks, we are finally in the homestretch. You just have seven whole days to finish up and you'll be in your bed, eating home cooked meals, and watching Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas in no time.
